An education on initials

Now that I live in The Boot, I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss hurricane season. That is, June 1-November 1, with the heart of the season ranging from about August 15-the end of September(ish). And I have been paying attention to Tropical Storm Claudette, which is set to hit the Florida panhandle pretty quick, making me think of my own personal plan, should one drift on over to The Boot.

And, since today falls within the aforementioned “heart of the season”, I’m learning about lots of different activity that goes on in the Gulf of Mexico. And I’m learning to decipher initials, and I will now impart my new knowledge on my California (and other non-Boot) readers.

T.W.- I don’t really pay attention to these initials because they stand for Tropical Wave, which isn’t reason to pack up the valuables. They happen all the time and there are tons happening each hurricane season and the winds usually only get up to 25 mph, if that. That’s not even fast enough to get a speeding ticket in a neighborhood.

T.D.- While I would normally associate these letters with a score in the game of American football, in the world of weather, it stands for Tropical Depression. It’s the next phase after a tropical wave. It’s still “disorganized” (another meteorologist term) but there is this thing called “closed circulation” which is when winds are no longer blowing in every which direction like they do with a tropical wave, but instead blowing counter-clockwise.

T.S.- A tropical depression becomes a Tropical Storm when lots of thunderstorms and the like move over the closed circulation and winds get be anywhere from 40ish mph to 79 mph.

Hurricane- This does not need any kind of initialing with it because when a tropical storm hits hurricane status, I’m tail lights.

But don’t worry. I have a plan in case this happens. First, I monitor this site. Technically because of my job, I’m considered “Mission Critical” (their name, not mine) which means I evacuate with my team currently in season (football) and that plan is to go to Jackson, Mississippi Shreveport, Louisiana. Personally-speaking, I will be putting all 18 of my scrapbooks in a black plastic garbage bag (it’s probably raining so I gotta waterproof them, duh!) then into my largest suitcase, grabbing the fire/water/bullet/100-pound anvil-proof briefcase that contains any important documents and my external hard drive and a bag of clothes (obvi) and putting it all in my trunk prior to the evacuation. In case you need to know.

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